General Wrexham... Great Story or Proof Football is Dead?

[OxShireWest]

Football is already dead, if the involvement of detached millionaires and billionaires is the standard by which we judge death. Oxford United is no different to this - hardly a community club run by fans or locals.

The good thing about Wrexham is their owners actually seem to care. They show up and do their bit. They support local causes, terminally ill children and provide services for people.

When you compare it to the sportswashing disgrace that is the Saudi Arabian Premier League, it speaks for itself.

I think what people are forgetting is Wrexham is also fantastic PR for the owners themselves.

Most football club owners are big business owners or leaders of international conglomerates - without them being club owners we probably wouldn't even know who they are (not that we know who most are anyway)!

Point being, their money isn't in fame or popularity. They're rich and will continue to be regardless of whether people know them or like them - this isn't the case for the Wrexham owners.

In acting, your fame and popularity is directly linked to how much money you can make. Most of an actors life is spent promoting themselves, making themselves seem likeable etc.

What I'm saying is, don't let them showing up to a few games, shedding a tear, and making emotional instagram videos lead you to believe they really and truly deeply care for the club. After all, they make their money by well... pretending!

 

[OxShireWest]

Don’t worry - we’re still four or five years away from that particular forest fire.

A friend of mine works on some of the production and filming of the Wrexham series and says that the owners are incredibly involved in all aspects of the local community, as well as the club itself. They also attend a huge number of games given their schedules and how far away they live. Compared to what we have, it sounds like bliss.

If this had been us during our time stuck down there, we would’ve all been loving it. I don’t view their situation as a fairytale but it doesn’t bother me either. It’s not like they’ve stolen people’s pensions to fund it all.

I would've been loving it, but I also wouldn't have felt the same sense of achievement. I also would've expected, or more like demanded, promotion under the circumstances so it happening wouldn't feel the same.

Everything happening at Wrexham is exactly as expected - its a predictable circus and in my view, quite boring.

 

[OxShireWest]

I love that circular 'what if they hadn't come in, spent money and had success' argument - they have spent some cash, they have enjoyed success and crowds have risen. It's a consequence of what has happened. As SD says above, they are a club with a long history, not some johnny-come-lately like Salford or Forest Green. Given what they were watching in a ground falling apart around them, 4,500 sounds like good base support to me and they've been able to build on that.

Personally, I'm more worried about our own ownership situation than getting on the back of a lower division club enjoying something of a revival. I'd get a new hobby if I were you, perhaps shouting at buses.

So we agree then that there's nothing particularly special about what's happening at Wrexham, because the same sense of pride, rise in attendances etc would happen at every club when they start doing well? That was the point of my original post.

You just have to look at us and the huge rise in attendances in big games and towards the end of 2015/2016 season, that's just what happens in football and has nothing to do with Wrexham as a club being unique or special.

Although, to be fair, we accomplished that success without spending triple what the rest of the league did, so you could argue it was more 'special'!

 

[Big Ron]

I would've been loving it, but I also wouldn't have felt the same sense of achievement. I also would've expected, or more like demanded, promotion under the circumstances so it happening wouldn't feel the same.

Everything happening at Wrexham is exactly as expected - its a predictable circus and in my view, quite boring.

Here's a thought - ignore it then. That's what I do when something bores me. You seem quite engaged.

 

[Carpy]

@OxShireWest why so bitter? Let Wrexham have their success, it costs you nothing and they've both gone about it the right way if you ask me, infastructure improvements, great fan engagement. Much rather folks with money put it into clubs at the bottom of the pyramid than the likes of Man City or Newcastle.

 

[m]

My coping mechanism is not giving the tiniest f**k about Wrexham one way or the other.

It's effective and surprisingly easy to maintain.

 

[Essexyellows]

Is it better to invest the money at the bottom to elevate an unfashionable club or to pour in billions of dubious money to the likes of Newcastle/Man City?

PS: New Wrexham shirt sponsors.... United Airlines.

 

[Paul Cannell]

Does anyone know if United (Airlines, I know there's only one United) has any cabin staff under the age of 60?

And, it's just fine having untold millions of dubious money poured into United (the only one).

 

[OxShireWest]

Here's a thought - ignore it then. That's what I do when something bores me. You seem quite engaged.

You're right, Ron.

We should just ignore the destruction of the integrity of the lower leagues. My bad.

 

[OxShireWest]

@OxShireWest why so bitter? Let Wrexham have their success, it costs you nothing and they've both gone about it the right way if you ask me, infastructure improvements, great fan engagement. Much rather folks with money put it into clubs at the bottom of the pyramid than the likes of Man City or Newcastle.

What's bitter about acknowledging having a budget 3x the size of everyone else and then winning isn't the surprise or great success many seem to believe it is?

They've done little different to what Man City have done. Pumped insane amounts of money into the club that everyone else can't compete with, and filling every aspect of it with sponsors made solely through connections.

People have a huge issue, including UEFA, with City using their own businesses and associates businesses to sponsor them with arguably inflated sponsorship deals, yet Ryan Reynold's own alcohol business sponsors Wrexham and his wife's alcohol brand sponsors the Wrexham training kit and women's kit. The terms of the deals, interestingly, have never been made public knowledge.

I can't wait to see if you all keep the 'doing things the right way' energy when they're competing against us in a couple of years...

 

[ZeroTheHero]

But what would the solution be then? No club below Prem level should be allowed any investment? Or it is capped at a certain level in any division? That would be a a sure way of maintaining the status quo - because whether you like it or not (and many of us don't) the more money you spend on a football team, the more likely it is to be successful. The Wrexham wage bill might have dwarfed others in the Conference but compared to many teams in L1 (and possibly in L2 as well) it was not excessive.

Rich people have been spending their money on football teams for years - it used to be local businessmen, then it was national companies, now it is international companies/corporates/countries and film stars. I do agree with you that Wrexham's success is not very surprising, but not that one circumstance has destroyed the integrity of the lower leagues. I'd suggest that if you look higher up the pyramid, you will see much more egregious examples of that.

 

[Yello]

Hmm, filling every aspect of sponsorship solely through contacts and connections......black and rounds....Bangkok glass ......Singha....

 

[m]

You're right, Ron.

We should just ignore the destruction of the integrity of the lower leagues. My bad.

I'm with you brother.

The fight against this thing that's been going on for as long as football itself starts now. Right here on Yellowsforum.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Hmm, filling every aspect of sponsorship solely through contacts and connections......black and rounds....Bangkok glass ......Singha....

Don;t forget EB charging...until it all went a bit sour

 

[OxShireWest]

But what would the solution be then? No club below Prem level should be allowed any investment? Or it is capped at a certain level in any division? That would be a a sure way of maintaining the status quo - because whether you like it or not (and many of us don't) the more money you spend on a football team, the more likely it is to be successful. The Wrexham wage bill might have dwarfed others in the Conference but compared to many teams in L1 (and possibly in L2 as well) it was not excessive.

Rich people have been spending their money on football teams for years - it used to be local businessmen, then it was national companies, now it is international companies/corporates/countries and film stars. I do agree with you that Wrexham's success is not very surprising, but not that one circumstance has destroyed the integrity of the lower leagues. I'd suggest that if you look higher up the pyramid, you will see much more egregious examples of that.

But this is the point - their wage bill in the National League was insane, and the latest reports suggest Parkinson is going to be given a wage budget more than *double* the League 2 average.

There's a big difference between 'investment', and just spending so much money that it doesn't give anyone else a chance - that's why it's compromised the integrity of the lower divisions.

The reality is, we're now at a place where a newly promoted L2 side has more financial pull than almost all clubs in L2 *and* L1. Even those coming down to L1 from the Championship probably can't compete with the wages & bonuses Wrexham will be paying this season.

Plymouth boss said not just their wage bill, but budget including agent fees, relocations, bonuses etc was £4.1million last season. For comparison, Wrexham's wage bill last season was estimated to be between £3-£3.5million, not including a £250k bonus each player got for winning the league.

It makes a mockery of the sport.

 

[unification]

I love that circular 'what if they hadn't come in, spent money and had success' argument - they have spent some cash, they have enjoyed success and crowds have risen. It's a consequence of what has happened. As SD says above, they are a club with a long history, not some johnny-come-lately like Salford or Forest Green. Given what they were watching in a ground falling apart around them, 4,500 sounds like good base support to me and they've been able to build on that.

Personally, I'm more worried about our own ownership situation than getting on the back of a lower division club enjoying something of a revival. I'd get a new hobby if I were you, perhaps shouting at buses.

Forest Green Rovers are 133 years old, formed 30 years before Leeds United. Even Salford City (formed as Salford Central) are 80 years old. They may be late comers to the League but they have a history too albeit as non-league sides. We're on shaky ground ourselves if we're being critical of Johnny Come Latelies to the FL since we only entered it in 1962 (barring a hiatus from 2006-2010).

What we're seeing with Wrexham is nothing different to what Jack Walker did with Blackburn in the early '90s or Roman Abramovic did with Chelsea in the early '00s. It just comes with names you know from another entertainment medium. We can grumble about the impact on the game but if these things didn't occur we'd end up with the same results year on year. We need, on occasion, a team to crash the party and only once in a generation do you get a Leicester-style story where the stars align and they do it organically. A faster track to success is to throw money at it and that's what the Hollywood duo have done here.

Should they get there, they'll get stuck either at League 1 or in the financial wild west that is the Championship since that's when you'll need eye-watering amounts of money to make it to the next step (Wolves lost over £1m a week to get to the PL, for example). Even Hollywood stars with their bank balances and networks will be truly going some to chase those kinds of losses.

Make a glossy football documentary by all means but nothing will ever hold a candle to how good The Impossible Job is as a fly-on-the-wall piece of television. It's the finest hour made about the game of football ever.

 

[bazzer9461]

I suppose there will be another Netflix series on Wrexham next season so as to have a bigger income so they can bypass rules on spending

 

[ZeroTheHero]

You are tilting at windmills. Look at the Prem - Chelsea's wage bill was reportedly somewhere north of £233m. Bournemouth spent £33m. Both are of course ridiculous amounts to spend - but Chelsea *should* have won the league if money was all there is to it, and surely there is no integrity to that, when one team has spent £200 million MORE than another one.

Is it 'fair' that Wrexham had a huge budget compared to their rivals? No. Is there any professional league in the world where every team has the same budget? Not that I know of. Will two Hollywood actors *keep* pumping money into Wrexham? I very much doubt it. Money has *always* made a difference in football and (how ever much we wish it didn't) always will.

I get that you don't like it (and I suspect most of us would prefer if money wasn't such a factor) - but let's hear how you would stop it happening.

 

[bazzer9461]

You are tilting at windmills. Look at the Prem - Chelsea's wage bill was reportedly somewhere north of £233m. Bournemouth spent £33m. Both are of course ridiculous amounts to spend - but Chelsea *should* have won the league if money was all there is to it, and surely there is no integrity to that, when one team has spent £200 million MORE than another one.

Is it 'fair' that Wrexham had a huge budget compared to their rivals? No. Is there any professional league in the world where every team has the same budget? Not that I know of. Will two Hollywood actors *keep* pumping money into Wrexham? I very much doubt it. Money has *always* made a difference in football and (how ever much we wish it didn't) always will.

I get that you don't like it (and I suspect most of us would prefer if money wasn't such a factor) - but let's hear how you would stop it happening.

Think you will find that Bournemouth’s wage was a lot more than 33 million

 

[Sheik djibouti]

If you want a real joke comparison, just look at Rangers after they entered administration in 2011/12 and were relegated to the 3rd division in Scotland. The still managed to attract home crowds of 49,000 and it only took them until the 2015/16 season to win promotion back to the Scottish Prem.